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Your market is a fierce one. According to the latest governmental report, over 99 per cent of the UK’s businesses are SMEs, so ensuring your brand is well considered and imaginative really can make all the difference between success and failure.

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WordPress 5.0 is the most recent update for the WordPress CMS platform. It is also the biggest and most noteworthy of the platform’s updates in quite some time. Up until now, the majority of WordPress updates have been small and incremental, whereas this one represents several major steps, if not leaps, forward.

If we asked you to list the top three most important marketing tools for a new or scaling business, would you say social media was up there? Most business owners would say social media is an absolute must if you want to succeed, and they’d have a point, but there’s a big difference between using social media for business and using social media for business success.

You might be surprised to learn that many businesses are indeed wasting their time with social media, but it’s not necessarily for the reasons you might expect.

Let’s take a closer look:

When social media is a waste of time

All tools are as good as useless if they’re used incorrectly. The same goes for using social media as a business marketing tool; if it’s used poorly or just for the sake of it, it becomes pointless and even detrimental to the business.

The first mistake: Rushing into it

There is a common misconception that businesses should use social media to promote their brands from day one, even if there’s nothing of any merit to publish just yet. Many startups that barely have a strong brand image in place feel that they simply have to post something on social media channels in order to get things off the ground. But this isn’t the case; businesses don’t have to post anything, and should certainly never do it just for the sake of it. Having a clear purpose and strategy in place is essential before even thinking about launching business social media profiles.

The second mistake: Posting irrelevant content

A mistake that largely follows on from the first, posting and sharing irrelevant information is all too common among businesses using social media. Either through lack of anything relevant to post (often due to not being ready for social media) or through lack of knowledge and expertise, some businesses end up sharing posts that have nothing to do with their industry or field.

For example, if your business specialises in gourmet food services and you share a video of a dog on a trampoline, you’ve most certainly wasted your time. Any followers that do see such posts are going to be confused or start losing trust and confidence in the brand posting it. All-in-all, your only achievement will be to weaken your brand image, perhaps irreparably.

The third mistake: Inconsistent posting

Businesses that post to social media on an ad-hoc basis or with huge gaps in between posts are inadvertently damaging their brand image. This approach to business social media marketing essentially tells all followers and potential customers that you don’t know what you’re doing, which is bad news for a business’ authority levels. Even worse, a customer who lands on a business social media page that hasn’t posted anything for over six months might assume the business has closed altogether, which means they’ll steer clear for good.

The fourth mistake: Being too pushy

It might sound strange, given that business social media is ultimately intended to market the brand, but posting too often about products and services is bad news. Social media is, after all, about being social, and going in for the hard sell all the time is the opposite of that. Businesses that do this will only push people away, rendering their efforts a complete waste of time and resources.

The fifth mistake: Going it alone

Not understanding the ever-evolving social media algorithms and strategy reqirements is the ultimate reason that new and scaling businesses so often struggle to get anywhere with social media activity. Unless you’re clued up on the many nuances of social media business strategy or willing to invest part of your budget in getting professional help, blindly posting content to social media will ultimately be a waste of your time.

Making social media work for your business

Don’t be disheartened; social media isn’t always a waste of time for businesses. Now you know what not to do, you can begin to plan your way to a business social media strategy that’s actually worth the time and money you will inevitably need to spend on it.

Here are 6 must-dos for making business social media worthwhile:

Have a clear brand image in place

If you don’t know who or what your business is, you can’t exactly start shouting about it on social media. What would you say? What would they see? Who would you even be talking to? If you don’t have this most basic of business elements in place, you’re not ready for social media just yet. Get the essentials like brand and key messages in place; the rest will follow.

Have a strategy

Using the scattergun approach to social media is a sure way to fail. All successful business social media accounts are run on solid, well-researched strategies laid down by experts. You as the business must know who you are, who you want to reach and what you’ve got to offer. The strategy will stitch all of these elements together and ensure the right messages are being seen by the right audience at the right time. If you know enough about social media you can always put this together yourself, otherwise a professional social media strategist can help guide you.

Be visible and consistent

This largely follows on from the need for a strategy, as regular and consistent posting is essential to a successful business social media presence. If you don’t feel you have the time to post regularly, you can use scheduling software to help you out, but you should never allow your social presence to drop off a cliff. Make sure you’re posting content that is of a consistent quality at regular intervals, so your followers will learn to look out for your updates. But don’t post too often or you’ll start annoying people; it’s quite the balancing act.

Pick your channels wisely

An accountancy business trying to make it big on Instagram is the very definition of social media time wasting. Make sure you pick the social media channels that best complement your business type and goals and focus your attention on those. Trying to hit them all is pointless; you’ll only end up weakening your brand image and frustrating yourselves.

Add value

Posting content that is relevant to your brand and your industry is essential, but so too is posting content that your followers will value. Whether it’s guides, how-to’s, tour videos, tips or just something to make them laugh, it is this valuable content that will help build your authority and brand trust, along with brand awareness and those all-important sales.

Be patient

You may have heard it said that business marketing is a marathon, not a sprint. This classic albeit slightly clichéd adage is especially true for business social media. It’s not all going to happen overnight; it takes years to build up a solid social media presence with big-time rewards, but it’s worth the wait.

When you get it right, social media marketing can take your business to entirely new heights and drive startling amounts of revenue. But to get it right, you need to make sure you’re not wasting your time on silly mistakes. Follow these steps and you’ll be well on your way to social success.

Before we go begin there is one thing we must make clear, neither your brand nor your branding can be simply defined by your logo.

There is often no real distinction between brand and branding, a common yet sizeable mistake that could cost a business its potential success. The situation is often further clouded by the lack of understanding of many marketing agencies. There is tendency to jump straight into the branding stage before a clear brand has been established, simply because it’s what the client has asked for.

It’s crucial that business owners and marketers understand that you simply cannot start branding a business without having a clear, well-understood brand already in place.

“Every great design begins with an even better story.” – Lorinda Mamo

If you are not able to clearly define your brand it will be very difficult for an agency to create branding that echoes your brand effectively.

Businesses are not always able to explain their brand in a simple way that their team, their customers and the creative agency they might be working with can understand. This is where problems occur as the story, and therefore its effectiveness, becomes diluted through a lack of understanding of where the business has come from and what it stands for.

To define your brand there are a number of things you need to think about. And, it’s important to go through this thinking process before you start work on your branding.

What is brand?

Simply put, your brand is the instant reaction someone has when your business is mentioned.

In more detail…

Story

Your brand often stems from the reason you went into business in the first place. The change you wanted to make, the purpose of your product/service and why you felt the desire to create it all play a strong part in defining who you are as a company.

Stories are powerful. And, every strong, recognisable brand has a story behind it.

Vision

Your brand is the vision of your business. It’s the promise you keep as an organisation and the core idea behind everything you do. It’s what you want to achieve as a business, which again comes back to the ‘why’.

A great example is Patagonia’s mission statement:

‘Build the best product, cause no unnecessary harm, use business to inspire and implement solutions to the environmental crisis.’

Your vision is not your sales objectives, your growth forecasts or your profit targets. Your vision runs deeper than the figures, it’s the reason that you as a business owner would do what you do even if it made you no money at all.

Action

Your brand is how you are going to achieve your vision. Each action you take will play a part in defining your business brand. For example, if you’re Patagonia you’re not going to protect the planet if you hire those who don’t care about it. You therefore need to think about your hiring process and how you will go about finding people that align with your vision and purpose.

Simon Sinek’s TED Talk on how great leaders inspire action is definitely worth a listen if you’re ready to start building your brand:

Simon also talks about what he calls ‘The Golden Circle’, a theory that represents how businesses should think about their brand if they want it to be a success.

Action is the ‘how’.

Finally, and perhaps most importantly, your brand is what others say about your business when you’re not around and the emotions they feel when they do so.

“At the end of the day people won’t remember what you said or did, they will remember how you made them feel.” – Maya Angelou

Again, take Patagonia as an example. Their brand is most simply defined by three words: quality, people, ethics. The exact qualities we associate with the brand as a consumer.

It’s no good saying that you look after your people if there are reviews on the internet saying that you don’t. You will be branded as a bad employer by customers and potential employees and that can be hard to undo.

What is branding?

Your branding is your visual identity that makes anything you produce instantly recognisable. And, if it’s done well it will be recognisable without your logo needing to make an appearance.

For example, which brand springs to mind when you see this:

Your branding can include:

Your logo

Your typography

Your colour palette

Your graphics

Your website

Your marketing collateral (letter heads etc.)

Your visual style (photography + video)

Your branding is not your marketing but when your brand and your branding are brought together with strategy and creativity, that’s your marketing.

The word brand comes from the Old Norse word brandr, meaning to burn, and is of Anglo-Saxon origin. The use of brand has its roots in cattle ranching and farming, farmers used to brand their cattle in order to claim their ownership over a specific herd. The word brand was first introduced to the world of advertising in the late 1950s, by David Ogilvy, who coined ‘brand-image’ advertising.

From then on brand and branding have come to mean very different things.

Your branding is the visual mark (the mark on the animal), your brand is what that mark represents (the quality of the meat).

The biggest difference between your brand and branding is; your branding can change without your brand being affected–you can ‘rebrand’. You can redesign your visual identity, you can continually tweak your marketing creative and you can hire a new CMO, but your brand should remain the same unless there’s something about it that’s not right. A creative agency will be able to help you with your branding but they can’t help you fix your brand, that change must come from the inside.

Take Apple as an example. Tim Cook took over as CEO with his own ideas for the business and their visual identity has developed over the years but their brand simply defined by ‘hip innovation’ has always remained the DNA of the organisation.

Actually, working out who you are as a business and what you stand for is not always easy. But, there is a process you can go through to work it out.

How to define your brand

The most obvious fault is when a business notices that sales are dropping and so starts spending more money on branding rather than looking for the root cause of the problem which is often a lack of brand understanding.

If your sales are dropping because your waiters/waitresses are being rude to customers and have no interest in your brand then no amount of branding is going to change people’s opinion of your business. This is when you need to go back and re-evaluate your internal brand communication and work out what it is that’s changed and why your values are not being echoed by your employees.

Here are some questions to ask yourself as a business owner to establish your brand:

Why does my company exist?

How did we get here? (What is our story?)

What is the problem we help our customers solve?

Why should our customers trust us over our competitors?

How would our employees describe us?

What tone of voice should we be using?

Once you’ve answered all of these questions you are well on your way to knowing your brand. And, to make sure everyone involved in your business understands it we recommend putting together a set of brand guidelines.

How to create effective branding

This is a big topic in itself and consists of many elements, but the most important thing is to know your brand well first.

You then need to think about who else is already using the colour palette you like in case there’s no chance you can compete.

Once you know the direction you’re heading in we suggest speaking to a branding expert who will be able to help you craft your branding in a natural way that speaks to your audience and echoes your brand.

There are many articles out there that talk about brand and branding as one and the same. Whilst they are closely linked–one does not work without the other–they are two very different aspects of your business.

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